


No Matter How Cold

by mizzsy



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Fruits Basket au, Kana/Hatori story, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-28 08:23:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20775491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mizzsy/pseuds/mizzsy
Summary: The Snow Will Melt. Without Fail.Fruits Basket AU. Life was so warm now Edward had come into it. It seemed that winter was gone forever.





	No Matter How Cold

**Author's Note:**

> Might make this a series. Need to figure the character matching.

_"Host, when snow melts, what does it become?" _

The question haunted him in every stray note of his laughter that surely caught Host's attention, even now. He could not see the accompanying warmth of Edward Iplier's laugh anymore; the loss of his sight left him in an endless night. Yet, not having to see Edward's shining face again was in some way a shelter to Host in the frigid, never ending winds he had been trapped in for the past six months.   
Better to accept it than find hope in a sun that would only leave again. 

Edward had come to the estate in a grey March two years ago. An edge member of the family - only holding to the the name by name degrees of paternal marriage. But he was still an Iplier, and a skilled Doctor too, meaning he had more than enough reason to be invited to enter Dark's mysteries inner circle in the main house. Host made up a large part of the invite; his childhood haemophilia never abated as hoped, and the fatigue paired with the conditions of the damned curse meant he was forbidden by Dark to leave the main house and see a normal Doctor. Dark would never risk exposing them all,after all. A live in Doctor was required.   
Edward had taken to his role gladly-a new, sunny breeze in the confines of the dark, cold main house. Host has kept his learned place, leavinf his fortifications highand his demeanour icy around the outsider. It had always worked to drive others away, until there was only Dark. The only thing he had ever needed. Not even his parents-distant, scared, disgusted - could care for him the way Dark did all of his creatures.   
But not Edward.   
Every day he came with his bright smile and the smell of grass and flowers on his skin. His hands were sure and gentle as he checked Host's blood pressure and gave him his shots. And each day, he came eith the same silly question on his lips. Playfully, jokingly, mockingly repeating it to his patient, and showing no frustration at the stoney silence he received. Until one day, a reply finally fell from Host's lips.   
"It becomes water, obviously." he muttered, voice hoarse from days of hibernation.   
"Nope!" Edward chuckled lightly. Host's attention turned to him in full for the first time. Grey eyes meeting green that gladly returned the stare.   
"Well then, what is it?" Host asked, intrigue sparking the dead wood that had laid in his chest for a long season.   
"No, I don't think I'll tell you. Think about it instead. I'll ask you again tomorrow."  
A hundred new days came, and each with a new, increasingly teasing answer from Host. He whiles away the lengthening hours of the day searching for an answer to Edward's riddle with a fervour he had nothing else to turn on in this lonely place. And each one was met with a cheeky negative from Edward, spoken with a laugh or a smole that seeded itself under Host's skin until they flowered into a new kind of life for the man. Soon, their three sentence conversations bloomed, growing until the sky outside Host's window turned red. All of the ice Host had buried himself in was now only a memory under the inevitable warmth of Edward's change.   
Host fell in love with the same need that life had for the sun.   
And so, it was inevitable Edward would find out about the curse.   
14 members of the Iplier family had suffered a curse for generations-possessed by the spirits of the zodiac and their God. When embraced by a member of the opposite sex, or weakened, they would transform into that animal. A secret that had seen Host shamefully hidden away all of his, fate decided the moment his Mother first held him in her hands and he suddenly became something else.   
It was far more shameful than it should be, Host began to understand as his world lit up beyond the house. If only Dark could see it that way.   
Nevertheless, he could hide it if he had to. They were both men, Host assured himself the first time Edward covered Host's lips with the taste of coffee and sun warmed breath. There was no danger between them being together.   
But one day, Host pushed himself too far, stubbornly ignoring a streaming cut on his arm until Edward found himself with a lapful of dragon.   
In his other form, Host's body became a thin, wiggling thing more akin to a snake than a mythical beast. His scales, however, were an incandescent fall of gold, Hazel and burgundy, shimmering under the light like its own sunrise. Eric had told him it was beautiful, always filled with childlike wonder as he watched the flow of colours.   
Host has always hated it.   
He tried to wiggle away, cursing his stubby paws and lack of wings as Edward stubbornly, if bemusedly, held tight.   
"I… Have no idea what's going on."Edward said as his hands ran down the rough scales of Host's other body. "But you're going nowhere until you tell me."  
So he listened, with a patience had only known in him, and smiled at Host as he transformed back.   
"All the times you pushed me away. All the time you've spent hiding away here, because of this?" with tears sparkling his eyes, Edward pulled Host's face close until their foreheads touched, "I'm not afraid Host. I'm not disgusted or repulsed by you in any form. I won't hate you for knowing, Host. I love you."   
The banks unfroze and rivers seemed to stream from Host's eyes as he held Edward as tight as he dared. He didn't know how long they laid there, spilling secrets and dreams, and at last, the answer to Edward's question.   
Host knew then what he wanted, and they went to tell Dark together.   
The head of the Iplier family and the zodiac watched them with sneering eyes as the two entered and waited before him. He lounged idly, attention always elsewhere as he seemed uninterested as Host pleaded their case. Until the final words came to light.   
"Please allow us to marry."  
The stiffening in the calm facade was imperceptible to anyone but a person who had lived only with Dark for years. The minute warning, the shift before the storm, was enough. Hist had Edward pushed behind him as Dark lunged forward- clawing, punching, screaming.   
"No! No! No!"   
Hands pulled at Host's skin and hair, trying to move around him to his true target.   
"You think you can have him? You? As if you could ever be enough to take him from me!"  
Host couldn't move, he couldn't even lift his hands to protect his face from Dark's blows as they became frantic. All he was allowed to do was stand fast between Dark and his heart, even as the nails tore deeper and deeper into his face.   
There was so much noise- Dark, Edward and his own shouts. The crash and stumble of the three bodies in the room. He could hear a door, Wilford's voice before the other zodiac pushed his way between them.   
Too late.   
Dark pushed, with all the strength his frail form hid, and Host smashed into the mirror. Somewhere in the background Wilford held Dark back as Edward rushed to Host's side.   
Warmth. A horrible, heat filled his eyes in between the burning ice that burrowed into his skin, his eyes, in a hundred tiny stabs. His skin stung at the slow seep of it down his face.   
Host was cold.   
He felt Edward's hands on him, turning Host's face gently towards him with hushed, sobbing comforts.   
"Host…"  
He forced his melting-freezing eyes open for Edward. The scream came soon after.   
"It's your fault! If Host goes blind,_ it's all your fault!" _  
The last thing Host ever saw, already turning to grey, was Edward's wide eyed expression as their world came crashing down. 

It broke him.   
Wilford was the one to break the news to them, with a weary sigh to the Doctor unable to leave Host's bedside to do any medical care. All Host could do was listed to Edward's sobs as he connected the heaviness in his skull to the permanent loss of his sight.   
Dark was not to blame. Never. But someone had to be.   
Edward spent days awake, refusing to believe there was no remedy. He was a Doctor, he could fix it. He pored other journals day and night, hunched, shaking and fragile. He couldn't bear to eat, never having lost the nausea he'd discovered on seeing all those shards of glass stuck in Host's eyes. Each night, Host would feel his way to the desk, desperately trying to pull Edward to any sort of rest from the broken shudders that had overtaken his body.   
When he finally passed out over his books, it was to the whispers of 'my fault'.   
As always, Dark had an answer.   
"It's you that's hurting him right now, isn't it?" Dark didn't ask, "If Edward didn't remember you, then he could be free of all that pain you gave to him."   
One if the Host's gift as the dragon was memory alteration. One that Dark took great joy in directing.   
"It's for the best," Dark murmured, hands like snow as they pulled Host's face close until. Their foreheads touched. "It's time for this little fantasy to end, Host."  
He wanted to rage,to throw off the phantom icy grip of the hands that took his eyes and run with Edward warm and green.   
The zodiac could not go against their God, no matter how vengeful. Not even after thousands of years could Host push that cold hold away.   
Host took Edward to the river where they first kissed. The view already becoming faded in his memory, but the gentle running of water as clear as it had been then.   
"I'm sorry." He whispered, feeling the track of tears against his palm as his hand covered Edward's eyes. "I wanted to protect you. To love you. But… I think now, it's best if we never met."  
For the first time in weeks, Edward at last seemed to hear him. His hand came to grip at Host's wrist, tight but not pulling it away.   
Like a thousand hooks Host felt his powers slip through Edward's brilliant mind and latch on to any whisper of him. Any joke, any late night, every secret smile. Their sharp points stabbed through them and latched on. He went back further, finding repeated thoughts of the mysterious handsome Host he wanted to talk with long before he brought Host's walls tumbling down. It all had to go.   
With no more words to give, Host pulled his lines back, taking every moment with them.   
"I…" Edward whispered, warmth slipping away as his body started to go lax under Host's hand. "I'm so glad I met you, Host."  
He was asleep when he hit the ground, tears staining his cheeks that he would have no memory of crying when he woke up in the snow."

_"When snow melts, what does it become?" _

Edward got better. And as Host adapted to the cold dark that would never shift again, he found he was still attuned to Edward even now. His voice, his laugh, his very presence was a signal that had Host looking towards it every time before he remembered.   
And each time, he sent up another prayer.   
_Please. If all I have is dead things and the night, let it be worth it. I don't care if I'm buried under the snow so that I never know how to breathe warm air again. Just let him be happy. _  
And today, it seemed, that prayer was answered.   
"Enough! I'm not telling you anymore!" Edward's voice came through the window, pulling Host from his tea.   
"Come on! Is she cute? At least tell me she managed to put a smile on that grim old face of yours." came a fainter voice.   
Host sipped his tea unnoticed, listening for the chest deep chuckle he knew would come.   
"Yeah," Edward laughed, "She makes me happy. Like I'm beginning again, you know?"   
The voices passed, stolen away by the distance, and Host smiled to himself.   
"Congratulations." He said.   
_It becomes Spring._


End file.
